ED Futures Update

Dear ED Futures Reader:

Here is your latest update. Not just the past week in this issue, but the week ahead. That's right. We are giving you a picture of what will appear on the ED Futures website this coming week.

Enjoy!

Don Iannone
ED Futures Publisher
Email: dtia@don-iannone.com
Tel: 440.449.0753

Clusters? How to Do It Right

We have been a good bit of cluster-based strategy work. People keep asking does the approach make sense. My is: It depends.

Click here to read a good sensible report on cluster-based economic development.

Brain Drain Claims Overrated? Report Says Yes

Here is an international perspective of the brain drain issue.

Based on static partial equilibrium analysis, the "new brain drain" literature argues that, by raising the return to education, a brain drain generates a brain gain that is, under certain conditions, larger than the brain drain itself, and that such a net brain gain results in an increase in welfare and growth due to education’s positive externalities. This paper, on the other hand, argues that these claims are exaggerated.

Get the report here.

Are Native Americans Better Off?

While economic conditions have improved for American Indians living on reservations, poverty remains prevalent, and tribes face deep challenges in their efforts to develop.

Since the spread of American Indian casinos and other forms of gambling across the nation, the public perception of reservation life has shifted from one of desperate poverty to windfall riches. That perception is deeply flawed. While gambling has brought substantial wealth to the members of some tribes, they remain in the minority.

The fedgazette's March 2003 analysis of 42 district reservations found that the richest five tribes accounted for 54 percent of casino revenue but less than 6 percent of population. (See map of Ninth District Indian Reservations.)

Snapshot: Southern Research Institute

Southern Research Institute is an independent 501-(c)-3, not-for-profit center for scientific research, affiliated with The University of Alabama at Birmingham.

-Founded in 1941.

-Innovative leadership in major scientific discoveries in drug discovery and development, engineering, aerospace, materials, chemical and biological defense, and environment and energy research.

-Public and private sector clients include the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Departments of Justice, Defense, Energy, Environmental Protection Agency and NASA, as well as major private companies in pharmaceutical, biotechnology, automotive, energy, manufacturing and more.

Science and technology are full of promise. Southern Research Institute uses that potential to advance people's lives through creative problem solving.

From health care and the environment to national defense, energy, engineering and more, we are leaders in research that touches families and communities around the world each day. A not-for-profit contract research organization headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, our history – and our future – is one of breakthrough discoveries, including revolutionary treatments for cancer, cleaner energy and innovative materials for commercial and military use.
Our 1999 affiliation with The University of Alabama at Birmingham enhanced our resources and opportunities by joining us to a world-renowned academic, medical and research center.

Southern Research Institute will be a major contributor in achieving the University's vision of being a top-ten U.S. research institute by 2010.

Capitalizing on Rural America

Here is a very insightful report on economic development in rural America.

A must read for all concerned with these issues.

SRI: Get the report here.

A Look at the New Demographics

America will soon set a new milestone, becoming a nation of 300 million people that is increasingly diverse, southern, and politically polarized. Demographers William Frey and Audrey Singer and their colleagues at the Metropolitan Policy Program have extensively researched the changing face of our nation and what it means for the future.

Get the speech here.

Cheap is Not Always Good!

Check out this new analysis by The Conference Board.

The comparative cost advantage of taking your business to low-wage countries such as China or India, where unit labor costs in manufacturing are 20 percent lower than in the U.S., are often not the bargain they seem when wages are adjusted for low productivity, according to a report released today by The Conference Board.

This is also true of decisions to locate in Mexico, Central and Eastern Europe rather than in North America and Western Europe.

"One critical lesson for businesses that benefit from one-time labor cost benefits when investing in 'low wage' countries is that productivity gains from new technology and innovation have to keep pace with often fast rising wages of skilled and semi-skilled workers or the 'cost advantage' begins to erode," says Bart van Ark, Director of The Conference Board international economic research program and co-author of the report with The Conference Board Director of Global Demographics, Judith Banister, and Economist Catherine Guillemineau, formerly of The Conference Board.

Read more here.